READER REACTION: While this article
seems intended to introduce the reader to a ‘for fee’ instructional content
providing service (Epic!) the author, a principal with this provider, makes
some very good points in it. Importantly, she points out that “All those badges and avatars won’t
get kids to persevere with a book if it isn’t geared to the child’s correct
reading level or the subject matter isn’t of interest.” And that “Kids look for content that excites
them, for language they understand, and for the experience a book will bring
them.” Coming from someone who, as she explains, has extensive experience in
the Gaming Industry, and is fully aware of the motivational aspects of Gaming
and how some instructional resource providers attempt to tap it in order to get
kids to read, she see technology as a way to pair kids with real books’ the
books, themselves, being the ultimate motivation for reading through the appeal
of their themes and content and accessible language. I’ve seen this approach
taken by other resource providers and I think it’s an important one that
fortunately technology greatly enables.

OPENING 100+ WORDS: “It has become conventional thought that gamification—the
application of game-style challenges and rewards to traditional tasks—is
changing the way kids learn. If there’s something being taught, it’s almost
certain there’s now a gamified way to learn it.

Making teaching methods more
entertaining is clearly beneficial for kids; earning badges and unlocking
avatars makes online games exciting and engaging, and the same methods can be
applied to learning tasks. But as great as it has been in many cases, gamified
learning isn’t a long-term solution for children and literacy. Moreover, it’s
dragging us away from what the fundamental reward should actually be: reading
itself…”

As the founder of what was once one
of the largest social-gaming companies,
I understand what makes gaming work. But I also understand its limitations…”